Oh Dare it not..
neath a cold wind it blew by
Lost midst the months old leaves
brand new daffodil fronds curled from cold
dash a jab of yellow
not the sun
where oh where is spring?
my sneezes bode of its arrival
while my chilly nose and toes await
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
No Longer Myth genealogy and dna
(Dec 2012) Yesterday MAGIC happened. It was all grounded in science, but MAGIC happened. In the span of an eye blink I was linked to a last name on another person's genealogy and a whole world of history to me was proven. Now the quest continues, to find more links. But it was magic, my life, my body was linked genetically to another person's genealogy via an autosomal dna test. I was linked to the Salem witches, the sisters Towne through my test comparing to another individual's test. It wasn't I, who claimed this, it was another. This just validates my latest find in genealogy. Rather a distant cousin's find. But I found her.
Somehow, this little trip into the science behind us, just makes it all seem so real. Suddenly, I am linked to the past and these people. I had gotten excited about my husband's dna tests and how it linked him more to his history and what I have been researching, however, the depth of realization jolted me, physically, when I found that name in her genealogy. Scanning the sirnames on the list always seems so strange. They all look familiar, but where are mine, if we share dna? Realizing that there might be a person not in my lineage who links us, or that somehow the link is so far back that to be able to determine the link may be impossible.
Having looked at my husband's autosomal dna and all the people he was related to by some percentage, I knew what I was getting into with this. To find a link so quickly and yet have it be back in the 1690's sent a chill down my back. I was truly descended from the family of women who suffered and died at the hands of fellow members of their community.
Somehow, this little trip into the science behind us, just makes it all seem so real. Suddenly, I am linked to the past and these people. I had gotten excited about my husband's dna tests and how it linked him more to his history and what I have been researching, however, the depth of realization jolted me, physically, when I found that name in her genealogy. Scanning the sirnames on the list always seems so strange. They all look familiar, but where are mine, if we share dna? Realizing that there might be a person not in my lineage who links us, or that somehow the link is so far back that to be able to determine the link may be impossible.
Having looked at my husband's autosomal dna and all the people he was related to by some percentage, I knew what I was getting into with this. To find a link so quickly and yet have it be back in the 1690's sent a chill down my back. I was truly descended from the family of women who suffered and died at the hands of fellow members of their community.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Myth into History: Genealogy for my families
With a new year already ten days old, I want to write more. To incorporate it with my current genealogy research, I thought to write some blog pieces for family on our family. I had thought about it a while ago and didn't feel I had enough information. I have finally realized I will NEVER have enough information. So, I am beginning, as I had the idea a long time ago and just want it to take off.
Before I forget, I need to start with how I started with my interest in family history.
I grew up in a small town in eastern Washington State, with a few stops elsewhere which widened my world view. When I was 5 and a half my parents moved us to the Netherlands for a year. I went to a Dutch Montessori Kindergarten with my brother. Yes, they spoke Dutch and hence, we kind of did too. We returned to Washington State the year later and my world view had been changed. When we were in 4th and 3rd grade we moved again to Connecticut.
In Connecticut we were exposed to US history like never before. One day when my class had a field trip to Mystic, my mother mentioned that I was related to John Wayne and the Billingtons on the Mayflower. That was probably the beginning. I don't believe I ever got to do a family history project for school. I always heard about classes that did that, and my kids were basically the same. Never got to do it. I felt cheated!
Around the time I graduated from college, my family headed east for a huge family reunion. It was a Zimmerly Morrison reunion as the two families that melded to be one. Now, those of you who know John Wayne's real name will realize this is how I am related to the Morrisons. And it is by marriage. I have cousins however who are related by blood. And they are cool stories which I will get to later.
I got a copy of my Dad's cousin's genealogy notes for his family. His mother's family went way back... especially her father's family which the cousin had researched. Edythe Zimmerly Stephens had done a smash bang job of family history long before the computer and Internet. Yes, lots of research and amazing information from libraries, books, wills and government records!
When we moved to the greater Washington DC area in late 1988, I got a research pass for National Archives and went into do some research. I was really very intrigued by my husband's history. His grandfather had given me a lot of data that I wrote down, but I wanted to find proof to understand the story better. I found that proof and the census intrigued me.
I eventually got a copy of family tree maker and started putting in information. It was an on again off again project that wove its way through years of my life. Woven again by moves overseas and the time consuming efforts such moves are. Rather than researching the family, soon we were adding to the family and rather than researching and documenting health and illnesses, we were knee deep in the fighting of illness. The next foray was a celebration of health and I committed to the future by digging more into the roots. The Internet opened up and while in Finland I combed rootsweb and usgenweb in their early stages trying to find more of my father's mother's family. Thanks to researchers on message boards I was sent in the right direction and kind of linked her family to a large family which we have purportedly linked to Sweden from a Royal expedition in 1654 to Delaware.
About this time I also made contact with a third cousin who is an established researcher who was straightening out issues with early Zimmerly family history. We have stayed in contact and have still to meet!
I am realizing that as I write, each little part needs expanding. Ah, wonderful, more things to write about! But where I am heading in my head is that, last year in searching for another part of my paternal Grandmother's family, I reached out to a researcher who had information on our Preston line. She believed we were related and that she came from the last relative I had found's sister and that I could build a circumstantial file of proofs to proof the relationship. Her research on her part of the family (that we did tie into) reached back to a Revolutionary War patriot, who hadn't been documented for DAR, and his history went back even further with family tie ins to the Salem episodes.
Our conversations on email encouraged my cousin to send her documentation into DAR and she became a member. I am still sitting on all of this, believing I will take another line into DAR as it will be easier to work with! But with the same year being the advent of Ancestry DNA, I decided to jump in as a way to compare Ancestry autosomal with the Family Tree DNA Autosomal which I had convinced some people to take.
Well, my first actual family tree link with genetics proved the link to Salem. I matched genes with a person who seems to only match my family tree in the Jacob Towne line. We both are great great.... grandchildren of Jacob Towne. And this story will go further enough to tell you that Jacob Towne was the brother of three of the condemned women in the Salem witch trials. Rebecca Towne Nourse, Mary Cloyse and Sarah Estey, (spellings differ at times). Rebecca and Mary died, Sarah survived due to the halt of trials and executions.
I am still chewing on this. I have figured out a few more distant cousins via DNA. Much is way back, but we all have little parts of those individuals which link us as family. This DNA research makes history real in a way it hasn't before. I am tugged into the story a bit more. I want to find the proofs, the written story to back up the writing I carry in me. Somehow, the poetics of the GACT alphabet soup warms the spirit of history within me.
Before I forget, I need to start with how I started with my interest in family history.
I grew up in a small town in eastern Washington State, with a few stops elsewhere which widened my world view. When I was 5 and a half my parents moved us to the Netherlands for a year. I went to a Dutch Montessori Kindergarten with my brother. Yes, they spoke Dutch and hence, we kind of did too. We returned to Washington State the year later and my world view had been changed. When we were in 4th and 3rd grade we moved again to Connecticut.
In Connecticut we were exposed to US history like never before. One day when my class had a field trip to Mystic, my mother mentioned that I was related to John Wayne and the Billingtons on the Mayflower. That was probably the beginning. I don't believe I ever got to do a family history project for school. I always heard about classes that did that, and my kids were basically the same. Never got to do it. I felt cheated!
Around the time I graduated from college, my family headed east for a huge family reunion. It was a Zimmerly Morrison reunion as the two families that melded to be one. Now, those of you who know John Wayne's real name will realize this is how I am related to the Morrisons. And it is by marriage. I have cousins however who are related by blood. And they are cool stories which I will get to later.
I got a copy of my Dad's cousin's genealogy notes for his family. His mother's family went way back... especially her father's family which the cousin had researched. Edythe Zimmerly Stephens had done a smash bang job of family history long before the computer and Internet. Yes, lots of research and amazing information from libraries, books, wills and government records!
When we moved to the greater Washington DC area in late 1988, I got a research pass for National Archives and went into do some research. I was really very intrigued by my husband's history. His grandfather had given me a lot of data that I wrote down, but I wanted to find proof to understand the story better. I found that proof and the census intrigued me.
I eventually got a copy of family tree maker and started putting in information. It was an on again off again project that wove its way through years of my life. Woven again by moves overseas and the time consuming efforts such moves are. Rather than researching the family, soon we were adding to the family and rather than researching and documenting health and illnesses, we were knee deep in the fighting of illness. The next foray was a celebration of health and I committed to the future by digging more into the roots. The Internet opened up and while in Finland I combed rootsweb and usgenweb in their early stages trying to find more of my father's mother's family. Thanks to researchers on message boards I was sent in the right direction and kind of linked her family to a large family which we have purportedly linked to Sweden from a Royal expedition in 1654 to Delaware.
About this time I also made contact with a third cousin who is an established researcher who was straightening out issues with early Zimmerly family history. We have stayed in contact and have still to meet!
I am realizing that as I write, each little part needs expanding. Ah, wonderful, more things to write about! But where I am heading in my head is that, last year in searching for another part of my paternal Grandmother's family, I reached out to a researcher who had information on our Preston line. She believed we were related and that she came from the last relative I had found's sister and that I could build a circumstantial file of proofs to proof the relationship. Her research on her part of the family (that we did tie into) reached back to a Revolutionary War patriot, who hadn't been documented for DAR, and his history went back even further with family tie ins to the Salem episodes.
Our conversations on email encouraged my cousin to send her documentation into DAR and she became a member. I am still sitting on all of this, believing I will take another line into DAR as it will be easier to work with! But with the same year being the advent of Ancestry DNA, I decided to jump in as a way to compare Ancestry autosomal with the Family Tree DNA Autosomal which I had convinced some people to take.
Well, my first actual family tree link with genetics proved the link to Salem. I matched genes with a person who seems to only match my family tree in the Jacob Towne line. We both are great great.... grandchildren of Jacob Towne. And this story will go further enough to tell you that Jacob Towne was the brother of three of the condemned women in the Salem witch trials. Rebecca Towne Nourse, Mary Cloyse and Sarah Estey, (spellings differ at times). Rebecca and Mary died, Sarah survived due to the halt of trials and executions.
I am still chewing on this. I have figured out a few more distant cousins via DNA. Much is way back, but we all have little parts of those individuals which link us as family. This DNA research makes history real in a way it hasn't before. I am tugged into the story a bit more. I want to find the proofs, the written story to back up the writing I carry in me. Somehow, the poetics of the GACT alphabet soup warms the spirit of history within me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)